Outside the euro area, though, there were encouraging signs for the UK economy.

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation reported on Wednesday that the number of people finding jobs grew again in December while vacancies rose at the fastest pace in almost two years.

In addition, the UK goods trade deficit shrank to 9.164 billion pounds in November from 9.487 billion pounds in October as exports rose faster than imports. The deficit remained higher than the past year's average though.